Opening Plenary

After the usual Alliance fanfare, the plenary featured a thoughtful and balanced panel discussion about the impact of proposed changes to United States telecommunications law. Moderated by Sue Buske (the leader of the same Buske Group which has peformed the evaluations and studies of Community Access Television of Salina, Inc. ), the panel included the following:

Jim Hornwood, Counsel, Spiegal &McDiarmid

Dan Brenner, Senior VP, Law and Regulatory Policy, NCTA

Lori Panzino-Tillery, President, Board of Directors NATOA

Link Hoewing, Asst. VP, Emerging Issues and Internet Technology Policy, Verizon

Tony Riddle, Executive Director, ACM

The primary thrust of the speakers seemed to be getting the message out about how little PEG access issues were at the forefront of any legislative conciousness in Washington, DC. Instead, attention has been revolving around the issue of Net Neutrality - which may prove to be the deciding factor in the passage of a joint House-Senate Telecommunications Act.